My cabling problems that have prevented me from having Internet access this week turned out to be my fault. Woops. I've since tracked down the problem, and will be heading to Home Depot shortly to pick up the last couple parts needed in order to correct the problem.
As you may or may not know, I developed a Movable Type plugin a while back called MT-Moderate, to help me with the growing tide of comment spam. The plugin is simple. It's only 3KB, and involves installing only a single file on your server. No special modules are needed, and it works immediately upon installation. MT-Blacklist is great and Jay did a simply amazing job, but let's face it - I don't want to spend the time installing it or maintaining it. Enter MT-Moderate.
The idea behind the plugin is remarkably simple: Older entries typically have higher placement in search engines, a feature desired by spammers, so don't allow new comments without checking them first. If, by some chance, a valid comment was left recently on an older entry, and it has been approved, then allow more comments on that same entry, assuming the conversation has picked up again. Some people like to close comments on old entries, and that's not a bad idea, but it means that those occasional valid comments that do come in won't ever be left. I don't like that. Handling it this way actually addresses that.
You see, for the most part, older entries don't get (valid) comments. They get spam comments. As the entries move into your archives, people don't often find them when they are reading your blog. Out of sight, out of mind and all that. They might be found through a search, either on your blog, or through an external search engine such as Google, but I have found it very rare that people who find your blog through those methods will leave a comment.
So MT-Moderate automatically moderates most comments that you'll want moderated. This is a huge step in blocking comment spam. If it doesn't show up on the site, then that's most of the battle. In fact, for some people, it is all of the battle. All you have to do is occasionally approve some comments that come in, because you'd like to see them on your blog. Those pending comments that contain nothing but spam? Ignore them. Done, problem solved.
In the last example, I showed you how to list pending comments so that you may easily delete them. This actually works and you should be fine with it. However, there are some other changes that you may want to make so that this feature will be better integrated.
So Motley Crue is getting ready to tour again. I think that's cool. Though they aren't coming to Charlotte until the latter part of the year. Not sure what's up with that.
Still, it should be exciting. They always put on a good show. But that wasn't why I feel like I must be getting old. No, that's because apparently Mick Mars is recovering from surgery. Hip replacement surgery. Wonder if he'll be onstage with a walker? Or addicted to vicodin? That'll probably be the new thing this year: Vicodin chic. So much for the heroin look.
